The final season of Game of Thrones [1] will arrive on our TV screens in 2019 [2], but that doesn't mean HBO is saying goodbye to Westeros forever. On Friday, the network announced that a prequel series [3] is officially in the works, and it's going to introduce us to a whole new crop of interesting characters.
The pilot for the prequel is set thousands of years before the events featured in author George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, meaning that the show likely won't include appearances from Jon Snow, Daenerys, Sansa, Arya, and the rest of the gang (regardless of whether or not they make it out of their own series alive).
According to HBO's description [5] of the as-yet-untitled project, "The series chronicles the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour, and only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros's history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend . . . it's not the story we think we know."
Ominous, no? Following in the footsteps of showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are Martin and Jane Goldman, a British screenwriter and producing duo who will take on showrunning duties for the prequel if it gets picked up for a full season.
The only downside of all this exciting news? The show likely won't be available until 2020 [6]. Then again, that should be just enough time for us to heal our emotional wounds after Game of Thrones airs its series finale.